Vehicle running boards provide great convenience to users, particularly operators of large trucks, sport-utility vehicles, and similar vehicles having an enhanced ground clearance. Running boards also enhance the aesthetic appearance of vehicles so equipped.
However, addition of original equipment and aftermarket running boards to a vehicle presents design and engineering challenges. This is because different running board designs may require different longitudinal support structures (solid plates, hollow tubes, extrusions, other open or closed sectional members), may be fabricated of different materials having different weights, different impact resistance, etc. (for example, fiberglass, steel, aluminum, or composites). Further, Still more, different running board designs may require different, often bespoke mounting methods/devices, for example vehicle body structure brackets, brakes, more advanced systems such as spring-latching systems, and the like. As a result, different running board designs can differently affect vehicle safety performance, i.e. side impact performance.
For this reason, addition of running boards to a vehicle often requires significant additional testing and recalibration of side impact systems, for example systems including side impact sensors. Such recalibration efforts add time and manufacturing cost, necessitating generation of significant additional vehicle-level crash data to support a new side impact recalibration process when a new running board design is implemented.
To solve this and other problems, the present disclosure relates to a running board mounting bracket and associated assemblies and methods. Advantageously, the described mounting bracket is applicable to multiple running board designs and manufactures, but obviates the need for recalibrating side impact safety parameters/devices on changing between running board designs. Thus, a single bracket may be used to mount multiple different running board designs to a vehicle, all without requiring recalibration of the vehicle side impact systems.